transformation
From Killer to Pastor
By Lucille Talusan
CBN News
CWNews.com–-PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - At the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, one can almost hear these images crying out for justice.
No words can describe how terrified the prisoners must have been as they waited to be brought to the killing fields.
In one detention center alone about 17,000 people were brutally tortured before they were slaughtered by Khmer Rouge soldiers. Now such inhuman acts are unthinkable, but what is even worse is to hear a former Khmer Rouge soldier say that he felt no guilt at all killing even the innocent people.
“I did not feel any guilt because it was my duty to kill,” said Pastor But Gnorn, Full Gospel Christian Church. “I needed to follow instructions from my superior. I cannot remember how many people I killed. When I capture the enemy, I tie his hands on his back and then shoot him.”
Gnorn is a former Khmer Rouge soldier. A survivor of two landmine explosions, he lost sight in his left eye and almost lost a leg. He was more fortunate than the nearly two million Cambodians who died during the Khmer Rouge reign in the 70s.
In its attempt to turn Cambodia into a classless society, the communist regime overworked, starved, and executed groups of people. Most of them were academics and professionals.
When the regime was driven from power in 1979, many Khmer Rouge soldiers fled to Thailand.
And they heard the Gospel message from Christian missionaries and relief workers in the refugee camps.
It was there that Gnorn's wife - who was also a Khmer Rouge soldier -gave her life to Christ in 1987.
“I persecuted my wife and said bad words to her,” Gnorn said. “I said Jesus is not my God because he is a foreigner. One day, after my wife came home from worship, I kicked my wife and she almost died.”
But the incident did not stop Gnorn's wife from worshipping God. Her unwavering faith drove Gnorn to begin reading the Bible, starting in the book of Genesis. It took him eight years to make it to the Gospel of John.
When he read John 3:16, he realized that his participation in the genocide was a sin.
He said, “When I was a Khmer Rouge soldier, I killed but I did not know I was committing sin. But after I believed in Jesus, I knew God will forgive all the sins I commit.”
Today, Gnorn pastors a church and meets with former Khmer Rouge soldiers in the hopes of convincing them to repent of their sins and accept Christ.
So this one time laborer in the killings fields now reaps a harvest for the Kingdom of God.
“Before I was a soldier of the Khmer Rouge I always killed but now I am a soldier of God,” Gnorn said. “I will go and share Jesus Christ and make the people live like us.”
CBN IS HERE FOR YOU!
Are you seeking answers in life? Are you hurting?
Are you facing a difficult situation?
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
